WSRI trip report

So, I decided to use this wonderful internet thing to see if I could extract anything from the collective knowledge of the world's divers. I posted a question on rec.scuba (well, when needs must...) and got a few answers. One of these gave me a direct contact for the Falie's owners. They told me that they only do the White Shark trips when they're chartered by Rodney Fox, and gave me his fax number. So I faxed Rodders, and Mrs Fox wrote back telling me that they only sell places through Sea & Sea, but that they hadn't seen one shark in their last 3 trips. That's 800 dollars per day to stare at the sea, and we can sit off Portland and do it for free!

Back to rec.scuba... where I stumbled accross a South African chap telling somebody about the sharks down there. A couple of e-mails later and he'd done some investigating and come up with the number for the White Shark Research Institute. Bingo! Yes, they would let members go on expeditions - and it wasn't going to be indecently expensive and there was a pretty darned good chance of spotting a White Shark. Full speed ahead, Mr Sulu.

A few months later, it's 7.00am and I'm touching down at DF Malan airport, Cape Town where I meet up with Jytte Ferreira of the WSRI. Clambering into the back of the Range Rover (closely followed by my luggage) I met Tomas, Marita and Charlotte (all Swedish) who were the other members on this expedition. Now, having just got off a 10 hour flight I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to talk about Abba and Volvos, so I found a 'comfortable' position and slept for most of the 2 1/2 hour journey to Gaansbai.

We were staying in a large house with a fantastic view of a rocky seashore - a good start. A quick change, and we were straight out to clean the boat before we started pouring blood over the deck etc. This is where we met the cage. Remember that cage in Jaws? The big square one made of solid steel bars? 'Fraid not. Ours was a small, circular cage - a steel framework covered with square mesh wire. But Craig (the expedition leader) assured us it had been used dozens of times and that it was safe. Well, time would tell.

The afternoon was spent going through launching and recovery procedures for the boat, an introductory talk about the White Shark, what to do if a shark gets caught in the cage ropes, what to do if a shark pulls the cage free of the boat and takes you on a ride, how to lean out of the cage and undo the quick release on the ropes. All the time I was remembering saying "Of course it's safe, don't worry".

The first 'proper' day of the expedition and we all wake up at dawn. Well, it would have been dawn but the thick fog sort of spoiled the sunrise. Still, not a breath of wind, so we towed the boat down to the harbour and prepared for lauch. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as channel markers at Kleinbai (where we launched) or at Dyer Island, so we had to sit and wait for the fog to clear.

About 2 hours later we were out at Dyer Island, moored in the channel, with the sweet smell of 60,000 fur seals wafting over us and their gentle calls playing on the breeze. Then we got our introduction to the bait. Craig gets his baits from the Mammal Research department at Cape Town University, and they get their seals from those that wash up dead around the coast. The particular bait for that day was a part of a large male seal. The front part- from the whiskers to the neck. "Smiler", we called him. Now, how do you tie a seal head onto a rope? Simple - there's a ready made hole, right through the middle.

Then we started chumming. Chum is made by emptying a bag of sardines into a drum, then mashing them to bits with a large pole. Finally, add about 1/2 litre of natural fish oil and top up with sea water. Chumming is a full time job, because it's important to generate a long, unbroken slick of scent which will attract the sharks. You pour about 1/2 a scoop every 30 seconds, being careful not to pour over any of the solids because they can be reused for the next batch.

So, there's one person chumming, one on lookout and the rest sunbathing, sleeping or generally lounging around, with the odd interruption to record environmental or oceanographic conditions. (Stefan, the WSRI's oceanographer is trying to correlate water conditions with shark behaviour). Every 30 mins or so, somebody else takes over the chumming so everybody gets their share of the fun. It's a tough life out in the field.

And that was how it stayed for the first day. Not a fin to be seen. Seals happily frolicking in the surf without a care in the world. And this is meant to be the place where sharks are prolific! Slightly downhearted, we headed back to base, cleaned the boat, then went off snorkelling to get some abalone for tea.

The second day began as early as the first, but this time there wasn't any fog, so we were at Dyer Island by about 8.00. We got anchored and prepared for the long wait, but 20 minutes later, Craig leapt to his feet shouting 'Shark at the bait!'. A 3.8m female had come for a look at Smiler. She did the classic approach - the first thing we saw was the slight bulge on the glassy surface caused by her bow wave, then two vortices formed signalling the arrival of the dorsal fin, which rose through the surface heading straight for the bait. But she didn't lunge for it in a frenzied attack - she just swam up slowly, almost came to a stop next to the bait and then slowly turned and headed off in another direction, swimming right past the stern of the boat.

That was my first sight of a White Shark. Everybody knows that they're large - but until you see one in the flesh, you don't appreciate just how massive an animal they are. And nobody has told you how graceful they are, how effortlessly they move, how calm they are in their natural environment. As Charlotte said 'I just want to get in there and hug it'.

Our 3.8m visitor returned a couple of minutes later, and this time showed a bit more interest in the bait. As she approached the bait, Stefan started to pull the bait towards the boat, and Craig readied the tagging pole. After another 2 or 3 approaches, she finally took the bait in her mouth and Stefan started pulling her in.

Things suddenly got very busy - Craig leaning over the side ready to insert the tag, Stefan pulling the shark in right alongside the boat, directly underneath where I was sitting with my camera. I have a vivid memory of the shark's head completely clear of the water, with Smiler staring up at me from its mouth.

About 30 minutes later, the Natal Sharks Board turned up and anchored down current from us. They were testing the electric barrier being developed as a replacement for shark nets - as seen in the documentary 'Shark Shocker'. That day, we saw 4 other sharks at their boat, but obviously the barrier was working because none of them came to take a look at us. We did get one other shark - a 3m who w as way too frisky to tag.

Back at base, we made plans for taking the cage out and starting to do some underwater work. The WSRI have found that it's best to get 2 or 3 sharks around the boat before starting cage work - individual sharks tend to be timid and generally don't stay around for very long.

We woke up the following morning to hear the wind howling - and down at the harbour the fishermen had all stayed in. There was no way we were going to Dyer Island, but research doesn't stop just because of that. The WSRI had heard of a seal colony at Quoin Point about 50km south along the coast. There were reports of White Shark sightings there, so we headed off to determine if this was a viable research site. It's not an easy place to reach, requiring some major off-roading in the Range Rover and a 3km walk, but eventually we reached Quoin Point. The seal colony is on an island which is no more than 200 yards offshore - it would be quite feasible to sit on the hills with a pair of binoculars and keep a record of shark activity as it happens. Local fishermen had told us that they had seen White Sharks swimming through the kelp to attack seals.

The next day was almost as rough - but we managed to launch from Gaansbai, where the largest White Shark on record in South Africa was caught. Gaansbai isn't recognised as a popular shark hangout, and we had a shark free day.

The weather was still giving us a hard time the next day - but as the day wore on, the wind eased and we managed to launch about 11.00. Out to Dyer Island, and by now we were desperate to get some shark work done. We'd had to say farewell to Smiler, so we had a new bait which is best described as a seal version of a Polo - take a frozen dead seal, chop the middle third out and you've got a donut of seal meat with all the sloppy bits in the middle.

The bait went over the side, and in minutes we had our first visitor, a small shark with a big appetite. This guy took about 1/2 of our brand new bait, and we couldn't even tag it. Within 15 minutes we had our next visitor - a 4m male. This was a serious lump of fish. Then Craig said those magic words... 'Who wants to go in the cage'. Well, before he'd finished speaking I was half kitted. No fins and 2 weightbelts, then a short step over the side of the boat and into the cage - making sure you get through the gap in the top!

The water was quite choppy, so the cage was moving around and I was getting thrown around inside it. So you sink to the bottom of the cage, brace yourself so you don't get hit by the cage, then the motion could easily make you horribly seasick. Viz wasn't too good, down to about 3m so all I could see was the bait and the back of the boat. At first I was really jumpy, thinking that every jolt on the cage was our 4m friend come back to see me. After a while, I settled down to wait for that shape to appear, then after a bit longer I started to get bored and cold. Then the anchor on the boat came loose and we started drifting toward the rocks, so my dive had to be aborted.

Things got kinda busy after that - I got back on the boat, then we tried to re-anchor, but the weather was worsening rapidly, so we headed back to base.

The next few days were also windy & rough, but we managed to get out to Dyer Island each day, working with the sharks as and when they appeared. We had one resighting of a tagged shark, but the sharks were still turning up individually and not staying around, so it wasn't worth trying the cage. On one day we'd been shark free for about 5 hours, and were starting to talk about swimming to the bait & back - just as we were lifting the anchor there was a huge splash dead ahead, then a dorsal fin appeared and thrashed for a couple of seconds. Another seal bites the dust. Just because the sharks don't come to the boat doesn't mean they're not there.

On the last day we headed out to Struisbaai to check out the activity there. It took almost 2 hours to get our first shark, but we then got another 2 in quick succession and the cage went into the water. Marita, one of the Swedish girls, was first into the cage - she said that the viz was terrible (we couldn't see the bottom of the cage from the surface), and despite a few close passes she didn't get a good look at a shark from the cage. Once again the wind had been picking up during the morning and conditions were getting dodgy, but when Marita came out of the cage, Tomas went in. Tomas lasted about 5 minutes before the seasickness got too bad and Tomas popped up and was somewhat poorly, just as Marita was hanging over the side of the boat. What the heck, it's all chum. The weather wasn't getting any better, so we called it a day and went back.

We were unlucky during our trip - the weather at that time of year is normally fairly settled, and although we saw 10 individuals up close during our expedition, that was a relatively low number. It shows just what a rare and unpredictable animal the White Shark is - and why it is so important that we don't allow our prejudice to destroy the most effective predator there is. I'm determined to see these animals up close - maybe next time I'll get my face to face meeting with a 4m shark (with a cage in the way). Until then I'll look forward to receiving my WSRI newsletters - if you're concerned with the fate of dolphins and whales, shouldn't you protect the sharks as well?

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